American Expeditionary Forces soldiers show techniques for coping with gas attacks

Location:
France Date:1918Duration:3 min 59 secSound:NO SOUND

Several soldiers of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) are seen moving through a trench, carrying supplies to their sector. Snow is on the ground all around the trench. Suddenly they stop and don their gas masks. The sit down in the trench as a gas cloud comes over them. Scene changes to a group of soldiers digging defenses at the base of a earthen berm. A lookout sentry standing above them sees a gas cloud headed their way and alerts everyone. All stop what they are doing, don their gas masks, and take up positions to better observe. Some remain behind the berm and other stand upon it. The next sequence illustrates the use of Ayrton fans to clear gas from a trench. Soldiers waving the fans move, one behind the other, low in a deep trench. In the next scene, drifting gas partially obscures a dugout entrance in a trench. A soldier, uses an Ayrton fan to dispel the gas. In the final scene, soldiers in gas masks are in firing positions in a trench. A gas cloud appears to have dissipated. One soldier removes his gas mask make sure it is safe, and then tells the others, who remove their masks and stow them away. (World War i; World War 1; WWI; WW1)